As Breast implant augmentation is a popular procedure.The breast implant augmentation recovery is also a popular question of topic. Breast surgeon specialist and board-certified plastic surgeon, Our Surgical Team is very open and honest with his patients about the process.
There is minimal to moderate pain since the breast implant is placed in a loose areolar plane under the pectoralis muscle. Due to the breast implant placement, there are no tissues to dissect through, so the pain is minimal to moderate.
There is no bleeding in breast implant augmentation recovery so there is also no pro-inflammatory stimulus to irritate sensory nerves. It is important to remember that breast augmentation surgery is done under direct visualization and is done using a lighted mammary retractor.
There are no random dissections, and thus there is no bleeding. Pain is induced by bleeding, so it makes sense that there is only minimal-moderate pain expected in a breast implant augmentation recovery. No bleeding is also critical since it is associated with early capsular contracture. Capsular contracture is the thickening of the breast scar tissue, which forms the capsule when a breast implant is placed.
In breast implant augmentation recovery, we provide our patients with a compression garment. This compression garment acts as a Band-Aid, wrapping the breasts so the pressure of the band suppresses the pain nerves. We require our patients to keep the compression garment on for one week until seen in the office.
We allow our patients to drive when they are no longer taking their pain pills. This time usually occurs after the one-week mark post-surgery. Power steering is recommended to avoid unnecessary use of your arms and pecs until your implant position stabilizes. This stabilization is when the capsule formation is completed, and this is noted by 2 weeks.
We tell our patients to avoid the use of their arms and pecs for one month and this is because both motions will squeeze down the subpectoral pocket and push the implant up into the subclavicular space that is larger in size, this is undesirable. To counter this, we also place our patients in a breast band that is put on top of the implants. Our breast band keeps our implants down. This can be removed when the capsule forms (occurs at two weeks), and once the capsule forms, the implant movement is forbidden.
Please see our 24-year old female here who is 3 months in her breast implant augmentation recovery time.